Culture and Intercultural Communication

"Culture is a learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms, and social practices, which affects the behaviors of a relatively large group of people."

"Terms such as nation, race, and ethnic group are often used synonymously with the term culture. Subculture and co-culture are other terms that are sometimes used in talking about groups of people. There are important distinctions, however, between these terms and the groups of people to which they might refer. "

"Subculture is also a term sometimes used to refer to racial and ethnic minority groups that share both a common nation-state with other cultures and some aspects of the larger culture. "

"The reasons that cultures differ is that the shared experiences remembered by cultural members, or a culture's history, were considered first. In the United States, for instance, the lesson of the country's historical experiences affects americans views of their government's relationships with other countries."